The pitch: Buy town, change name, turn profit

The first thing the buyer should do, Jim Keller figures, is conduct a contest to change the community's name.

After all,"Weed Heights" the name of a town for sale in the Mason Valley won't do much for a marketing campaign.

But with a fresh name, investors could turn a nice profit with the community atop a hill just northwest of Yerington, figure Keller and his team at Keller Realty Co.

in Reno.

Weed Heights is listed for sale at $12 million.

For the price, a buyer gets 166 singlefamily homes, 19 four-plexes, seven commercial buildings, a golf course, a miniature golf course and an RV park, all on 160 acres.

Built as a company town by Anaconda Mining Co.

in the late 1960s and named for a mining company executive,Weed Heights has been owned for more than 20 years by Don Tibbals, who also serves as a Lyon County commissioner, and his wife.

All but about 20 of the homes have been restored, Keller says, and there's a waiting list of would-be renters.

But Keller and his associate, David Larson, aren't pitching Weed Heights as a rental investment.

Instead, they think buyers could subdivide the residential lots Weed Heights is all one big parcel right now and sell the homes off individually.

The way they run the numbers, two-bedroom houses at Weed Heights could sell for $125,000.

There's 70 of them.Add in another 89 three-bedroom homes at $149,000 each.

The seven four-bedroom houses might sell for $179,000, and the 19 four-plex units could generate a total of $4.7 million.

Buyers, Keller and Larson say, might include California retirees looking for a laidback lifestyle in the Mason Valley.

Voila! The $12 million purchase price turns into $27.8 million in housing sales, less a couple of million for property repairs, and the buyer still has the golf courses, RV park and commercial buildings that include a restaurant.

The problem: The neighborhood has a bad environmental reputation.

The Environmental Protection Agency has taken over supervision of the cleanup of the open-pit copper mine that's part of the view from front doors at Weed Heights.

"At this point, we cannot say what, if any, health impacts from the site currently exist," EPA officials said in a report last year.

They said, however, that studies continue of possible air and water pollution that might be linked to the 3,400-acre mine site.

Keller is quick to note, however, that Weed Heights is separate from the mining property and has been free of environmental questions.

Potential buyers don't appear to be worried.

Within days of the listing, Keller had fielded a full-price offer, which was turned down because the owners didn't like the terms.

Keller Realty now is marketing the property nationally, and the firm is hearing from investment groups who want to own a town in Nevada.